Sulphur River Pack2
“I have one armored SUV,” I said. “I use it when my mate and I leave our territory.”
“Perfect. Put her in it with a few of your top warriors. Put more in another vehicle. We will be the surprise, they’ll never expect vampires to be working with you. The six of us will zip out and kill this rogue army while your warriors keep them engaged.”
“That’s kind of dangerous, isn’t it?”
“Not so much if we do this,” he said. He explained his plan, and I went to talk to my sons and my Beta about how we were going to make it happen. Tonight, while Randall was back in Dallas and the Pack was resting, we’d make our move.
Just after sundown, Talia entered the armored SUV in the back seat behind the driver. Three warriors were with her, and all four were wearing body armor under their clothes. The vests included ballistic plates capable of stopping a rifle round, but their heads were still vulnerable. A second SUV with four more armored and armed warriors led them down the driveway. The group stopped at the end of the drive, where it met the county road. “They are leaving Pack land now,” Theta Marvin sent from the security center.
“Be careful, love,” Patty sent to me. She and all the other non-combatants in the Pack were already in the safe rooms, just in case this was bigger than we thought.
“I will.” I looked at my iPad in the lead SUV, I had Erica, Jarrod, Eduardo and my Beta with me. The live feed from the drone overhead showed the two cars turning left. I could see the sniper tracking them, with a spotting scope not a rifle, and it looked like he was making a phone call. “Time to spring the trap. We’re two minutes back. In thirty seconds, take out the sentinels.”
“Roger that, Alpha.” We were running without headlights, and the hills would hide us from the sentinel for a few more seconds.
“Target down,” the sniper on my side sent.
“Target two down,” the sniper on the back road sent.
“Good job, men. Send the backups out and around,” I said. Since it was impossible for Todd and his people to know where we were headed, we figured they would set up before the first crossroads, which was about ten miles away in the direction Talia’s motorcade had turned. The backups were going to approach the crossroads from the other side, making sure none of these bastards would escape. A second group of warriors was going to the crossroads on the side they didn’t go to. They’d either kill them or chase them if they came towards the other group. “Marvin, what are the drones showing?”
“Ambush point is three miles ahead of Talia’s convoy, at the bottom of the draw by Mitchell Creek,” he said. “Twenty-one hostiles on both sides of the road, divided evenly on each hillside. There are men moving around by the bridge, it may be rigged to blow,” he said.
“I’m going to bail out before we reach the ambush point,” Talia said. “Our escorts will stop just short of the top of the hill and draw fire.”
“Sounds good, we’ll be just behind you. Warriors, watch your fire because they’ll be moving fast. Try to take Todd Aldridge alive if possible, kill the rest without mercy.”
Everyone was ready. We were racing down the road, about a mile back of Talia’s group with our lights off.
I saw the brake lights ahead and knew it was starting. The two SUV’s skidded to a halt just before the ambush point, and the warriors used the cars for cover as they started firing their rifles at the wolves lying in ambush. The drone video showed Talia moving quickly through the line of wolves on the left side of the road, leaving four dead in her wake in seconds. “Dammit, there’s not going to be anyone left for us at this rate,” I said as we pulled to a stop at the bottom of the next hill. The doors flew open, and the four vampires plus Erica disappeared faster than my eyes could track them. “Cease fire, friendlies inbound,” I ordered.
One warrior stayed with me, and I stayed back as I wasn’t needed. I watched the feed as the four vampires and two hybrids killed the ambushers in a violent spree that lasted less than twenty seconds. “All clear, Dad. Todd isn’t here.”
“Alpha, you have four vehicles inbound your position from the secondary ambush point, we are in pursuit,” the backup team leader sent.
“Stay back, we’ll be ready for them. Let’s get these cars set up on the other side of the hill,” I said.
Once we had moved the four vehicles out of sight off the sides of the road, I had them set up spike strips at the top of the hill. We had a few minutes before they arrived, so my men carried the dead to the vehicles and put them on tarps in the back. “Two minutes out, take positions,” I sent.
“Dad, let your warriors do this,” Talia sent. “We’ll stay back and get any stragglers.”
“If you see Todd, grab him and get him out of there,” I said.
The vehicles were coming fast, and they didn’t slow down as they reached the top of the hill. The sound of blowouts was loud in the air as the spike strips did their job, and the first vehicle skidded and rolled onto its side. The second vehicle stayed upright but ran into the first. The third and fourth skidded to a stop. As the doors opened, my men unleashed a hail of bullets into them.
“Todd’s in the lead vehicle,” Erica said. “Shift fire, we’re grabbing him.”
The crossfire shifted back to the other cars, and since every wolf that showed his head died, there wasn’t much return fire.
“Todd’s in custody and we’re clear,” Erica said. With that, the warriors moved forward, wiping out the rest of the resistance.
When the gunfire stopped, I walked past the lead vehicle to where Jarrod was holding Todd to the asphalt. His jeans were stained with urine, and his shirt was spattered with the blood of his driver. One of the warriors brought over silver cuffs and shackled him. “Get him out of here and to the cells now,” I told my men. He was loaded into the back of a vehicle and they took off.
“Load the dead into the vehicles and get them out of here,” I said. My Theta had already dispatched trucks to collect the cars that weren’t driveable, plus cleaning crews and their gear. We didn’t have much time, there were human ranches around and we needed to be out with the evidence before any Sheriffs arrived. The vampires fed on the wounded before cutting their throats, and the dead were piled and removed in minutes.
I stayed around with a dozen warriors and the vampires as we waited for the trucks. We pushed the lead vehicle back upright, but it wasn’t going anywhere with its tires shredded. The trucks arrived and we pushed the ruined vehicles up ramps and into them. The cleanup crew had tanks of hot water with bleach to remove the bloodstains from the road and the dirt on each side. We also removed the charges that had been set on the bridge.
Thirty minutes after the attack started, we were done. I wanted to run, my wolf a little disappointed we didn’t get into the action, and I was joined by the remaining warriors. We crossed back into our territory and beat the trucks back home.
It was a good night; we only had a few injured, none seriously, and the Rogue Army was no more.
I shifted back as Patty jumped into my arms, kissing me and welcoming me home. The scene was repeated by many of the other warriors, everyone relieved to be back after defending the Pack. I kissed her hard, then set her down and looked over at Talia, who had shifted and pulled on a long T-shirt. “Ready for some fun?”
“Oh yeah. Let’s get Tania and Bobby then go talk to Todd.”
Chief Enforcer Jacque Jones’ POV
Hampton Inn, Sulphur Springs TX
I hadn’t heard from Todd Aldridge in an hour, and their snatch-and-grab of Talia Stillwater should have been done long ago. I pinched my nose, knowing this was going bad. I needed to know how bad, so I grabbed my phone and keys and left the hotel room for my rental car.
The drive took about forty minutes; he had told me she was spotted leaving and which direction, so I had a good idea of where they would have made their move. It was nearing midnight as I reached the crossroads, then took the country road that led along the edge of their Pack lands. The night was warm, my windows were down and I had the radio off so I could concentrate.
I came over a hill and braked quickly, pulling over to the side of the road. My headlights showed nothing but two-lane blacktop, heading down to a bridge over a creek and back up the other side. Nothing appeared out of place, yet everything was wrong.
The smell of blood was strong in the air, as was the smell of gunpowder and bleach.
I turned off my car, closing the door behind me as I took a good smell. There weren’t any houses around and my senses were better in wolf form; moving to the passenger side of the car, I pulled off my clothes and tossed them in. Shifting into my large black and tan wolf, I took a deep sniff of the area.
There was a lot of blood, but no bodies, so the wolves had cleaned after themselves. The bleach was cutting the strong smell, and I could see some places where the road had been power washed. In the scrub I found fresh shell casings, mostly 5. 56mm but some pistol caliber as well. It must have been a battle.Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!
I spent the next twenty minutes processing the scene as I sniffed around the kill zone. There had been close to fifty people here, including four vampires. What was shocking to me was that the four vampires had arrived and departed with the Pack wolves. I had confirmed one thing; the Sulphur River Pack was working closely with the New Orleans coven led by Jarrod Covington.
I had smelled the Alpha Killer before, and my mind processed the change in her scent. She was no longer rogue, she had the Sulphur River pack smell, and she was mated. The vampire wildness that was part of her scent was easy to detect, and I froze when I smelled it in another wolf.
The Council would need to know this. There were two of these abominations running around this pack with the four vampires. How many more were they making? The new one was young and female. Imagine if they could breed true!
I needed to call this in. The rogues were dead, and there was no time to raise a rogue army or look for plausible deniability. We had the evidence now that the vampires were turning multiple wolves, and who knew how many more were on the way. It was time to call on the Packs and wipe this nest out before it killed us all.